Arriving for June 13th Safari

Hello, everyone. My friend, Kathy and I are going to be part of the June 13th Safari. We are arriving on Friday, the 12th, and thinking of doing the Arusha National Park tour. We wondered if anyone would be interested in doing that? We have read posts about the park tour and/or the walking tour. We would welcome any other suggestions for the day on Saturday, if the park tour doesn't work out.

Since we have been planning this trip for some time, we are hoping for a safe trip, and wondering other's thoughts on that subject, as our families sometimes think we are "nuts" for still wanting to go--after the recent attack at Garissa University. I realize that is pretty far from where we will be.. Just staying far from Somalia border sounds like a good idea.

Looking forward to hearing from our fellow travelers, and any others who have already done this trip...Any tips from you folks?

Comments

  • Hi, you have obviously read all the posts out there, so no need to repeat. But you can see that every year there is some sort of crisis in Kenya. You could chose to stay at home and risk getting struck by a car or even falling down the stairs, so please bare that in mind and that Tauck would cancel a trip if their experts in the field were concerned about imminent safety. Africa experiences have given us some of the most joy in our lives and we have already booked our next tour there, our family knows that is where we like to be and support us enjoying life there for those fleeting few days.
  • edited April 2015
    Joanie,

    My wife Kathy and I will be arriving in Arusha on Ethiopian Airlines (Dulles, Addis Ababa, Arusha) around 1 pm on Friday the 12th of June. Depending on how we feel after the long haul and to help start getting adjusted, we might take the guided walk around Lake Duluti later that afternoon. We are definitely planning to take the tour of Arusha National Park on Saturday, the 13th (from approx 0900 - 1600+/- ??) and wouldn't mind two more joining us.

    Though I've heard arrangements for the tour of the Park can be made the day we arrive, I plan to send an email to the hotel in a few days.
  • We booked our 2016 K&T safari a couple of weeks prior to the Garissa attack. While it did give me pause, I still believe the risk is relatively low, and, as British says, well worth it. Of course, we will monitor the situation and if conditions worsen significantly, may change our minds.

    We look forward to reading Alan and Joanie's reviews on your return. I've read most of the prior posts, but it will be nice to get updates. I am also interested in the Arusha National Park tour.
  • Thanks, British, for your thoughts. I try to think positively.
    Alan...we would love to join you and your wife for the national park tour, if we are up and ready.
    We land around 7:30 pm on Friday evening, the 12th. We will probably be so wired about even getting to Africa, I am not sure we will sleep for the entire length of the whole vacation!
    Kathy was going to send an email to the hotel for specifics.
    Dottie...we will surely keep you up to date on how the trip is going. It was almost a year ago, that we booked our trip. Originally were going to go later in July, but my daughter became pregnant, and her due date was too close to our trip. So we moved it up to June, and she will hopefully, go full term, with baby arriving in August.
  • Are there other folks arriving for this tour, and may also want to join us to the national park? Can't wait for this trip to come up! I am coming from Connecticut, and Kathy from New Jersey. A life long dream.
  • I'd like to throw this thought or info out there before you start creating a large group to go to Arusha National Park. When we went, the vehicle used was quite small, you might want to inquire if there are bigger vehicles that will accommodate a larger group, or will you have to go in separate vehicles and therefore it will not reduce the cost for you. It might also mean that you will maybe have to book the tour more in advance than last minute like we did. We actually enjoyed being out there on our own. WE could decide what time we set out and what time we would like to be back. We could decide when we wanted to hang around in one spot for longer maybe because we had more of an interest in a particular animal bird or plant species. And maybe more importantly, you have to make sure that all or none of you want to do the two to three hour walking tour because if some don't they are going to be spending a boring few hours waiting for the others to get back in one area. It's a circular tour, so it is not like the other safaris when you can take off and do something else. When the official tour begins proper, you will have to come to compromises with whoever else is in your vehicle, and each day that is going to be different people with you and different guides because that is how Tauck does it. When we did the K and T tour there were two very nice ladies who were bird obsessed, most of our group were very rude to them and did not want be with them, we did not mind so we went out with them a lot and we saw some great birds as well as all the animals. Just throwing my observations out there.
  • edited April 2015
    Joanie- I contacted the Duluti Serena, and arranged for a tour for two with the possibility of two additional people if you want to join us. I will finalize (pay, etc.) when we check in around 2PM on the 12th. I want to limit the number to 4 for the reasons British mentioned. Here is the info from the Serena:

    Dear Alan,

    Thanks for your email to Serena.

    Please see the below as per your request and also attached is the list of other activities offered.

    Nature walk around Lake Duluti price is $ 12.00 PP
    Arusha National Park – Car $ 200.00
    Park fees $ 45.00 PP to be paid by VISA card
    Picnic lunch from hotel $ 15.00 PP

    With Regards,

    Doreen.


    Edit: Here is the attachment. I can't vouch that the Serena actually offers all they say. Reviews on TripAdvisor questioned the availability of some activities like canoeing.

    guest_activities.jpg

  • Hello, All,

    Thanks, British, for your note. I posted that, just to see if there were other people who might be arriving early, and would want to plan to go (not necessarily as a large group). Just thought there might be some comfort in knowing that others from the tour were traveling to the National Park.

    Alan, I think, if ok, we would like to share the transportation with you. I will check with my travel partner, to be sure. I think Kathy also contacted the hotel.

    Soon it will be the 1st of May...June not far behind!!! Can't wait.
  • 50joanie wrote:
    Are there other folks arriving for this tour, and may also want to join us to the national park? Can't wait for this trip to come up! I am coming from Connecticut, and Kathy from New Jersey. A life long dream.

    FYI, I'm a Jersey boy (Morris Plains then Holmdel)- moved to Illinois before my senior year in HS : )
  • Well AlanS, you are getting close. A couple of months and you'll be enjoying a great trip. It is good you are planning some ancillary activities in advance. I haven't been in here for a while but a quick drive by and I can tell you are chomping at the bit as well you should be. I am sure you'll be shooting a ton of pictures and you'll enjoy every one of them.

    Of my six trips with Tauck, this one is on the top of my list. I am actually looking at making this trip again, but not with Tauck. Not because Tauck was bad...it was wonderful. I just would like to "rough it" a bit more. I have found a company where we will spend more nights in tents in some more "rustic" areas. The food won't be as upscale, but it is 22 days long and full of "game drives" and still cheaper that Tauck. I thought about doing it this September, but I will wait until next year. It will make a great comparison between rustic and upscale. There are things I like about both, actually.

    My focus right now is on spending June and July in London. It is just around the corner, too. I have several visitors coming and plan on hitting the spots I didn't see on my other trips here in addition to the ones I want to see again. I am also going to be there for Wimbledon and look forward to seeing some competitive tennis. I have a great flat on the Thames and can spend some time sitting on my balcony sipping some tea and watching the ships go by to a backdrop of the London Eye, Parliament, etc. I'll get to see the Queen's official birthday parade on June 13th. I wonder if she'll share a cup of tea with me?

    OK, have fun, be safe, and enjoy the trip....it is a good one.
  • edited April 2015
    ndvb- You got that right! I'm chomping at the bit- only 47 days, 23 hours, 5 min. and 15 sec. til departure, but who's counting? : )

    I went to the ET website last night to check our flight status and discovered the flight home now has a one hour stop for fuel in Dublin instead of Rome. No big deal, but it caught me by surprise. There were a few minor time changes as well and we have a slightly shorter layover in Addis Ababa, which is good. The aircraft has the same seating though is a bit newer- a (leased?) 777-300ER vs the older 777-200LR. It sure would be nice if they substituted one of their 787-8's with its 2-2-2 seating in business!

    I wouldn't mind a more rustic safari, but not my wife!!! I hope she likes it enough to agree to take the Botswana, SA, Zambia trip someday.

    This fall we are scheduled for the Best of Ireland and next spring it is Classic Italy, Small Groups. I'm planning to load the Italy trip with extras- arrive in Sorrento two days early - hire a car and driver the first day to see the smaller Colosseum (but 3rd largest in Italy), baths, etc. in Pozzuoli (northern suburb of Naples) and stop at the National Archeological Museum in Naples and/or a stop at Herculaneum on the way back to Sorrento. The next day we plan to take the hydrofoil to Capri. Unless they change the 2016 itinerary (not published yet) we also plan to book a side trip from Florence to Pisa with Viator (though extremely touristic, when in Italy, you gotta see the "Tower" : ) ) and a Segway tour of Florence the following free afternoon.

    I had originally planned to fly via Heathrow on the way to Shannon, Ireland so we could spend a few days in London and see things we missed on the E,S,W trip- maybe visit Highclere Castle (Downton Abby), but my wife thought it would make the trip too long- we are still flying via Heathrow. Maybe you can catch the Queen at the cafe where she often hangs out, according to our England, Scotland, Wales guide from two years ago. He sent me this picture of him hangin' with Betts : )

    Ron_QE.jpg

  • Have you already hired the car and driver in Italy? If not, I have a good guy to work with. He can actually set up drivers all over Europe. We used him on an Italian trip in 2010. We were picked up at our hotel and taken to the Amalfi Coast through Pompeii. He set up a personal guide for just the two of us. While there the guide ran into her uncle who is in charge of security in Pompeii. At the time, there was an exhibition that was due to open in a couple of months and no one was allowed in. He unlocked the door for us and the three of us (the guide, his niece, hadn't seen it either) and we had a private tour of it. We then drove through Sorrento and down to Positano and then back to the airport in Rome.

    We did the same thing on a trip to Berlin and took a driver and guide out to Potsdam for a day. Again, the flexibility on those trips is great

    In 2014, before I went on the safari, my youngest daughter, her family, and I went on a Disney Cruise from Barcelona to Venice. He set up private drivers and guides for us at all of the stops on the cruise. It was no more expensive than the Disney excursions and we weren't on a bus with 55 people (half of them kids). We made adjustments on the fly, stopped to eat when we wanted, restroom stops when we needed them....etc. We even met Roberto and his wife at a restaurant for breakfast on our way from the ship into Rome. We had a 5 and 7 year old with us and I told him to hire guides who would make things interesting for the children. We stopped at Monaco, Florence, Rome, Naples, Catania, Corfu, Dubrovnik, and Venice. Everywhere was a hit with all of us. If you want to contact him I can give you an email address....just let me know. I'm sure he can set up a trip to Capri also.

    As far as the ET flight goes, I think I told you before, it was very good. Seats were comfortable, food was excellent (chef on board), and flight staff was great. You'll be fine. We stopped in Rome for fuel, but Dublin will be fine.

    You'll love the Best of Ireland trip. We did it in 2012 right after the England, Scotland, and Wales trip. (We had a car and driver hired for the day before the trip started in Scotland and went to St. A n d r e w s (sorry, but Tauck wipes out personal names for some reason) and down the coast through a bunch of fishing villages. If you have Mary Cagney you'll have a great trip. Tell her the guy who told the Irish joke about the two Irishmen drinking in a pub in Boston at the going away dinner and she'll probably remember it. She was a fantastic guide and a great personality. Although if I never heard her mention the "Celtic Tiger" again it wouldn't upset me. She over did that one.

    Like I said in the earlier post, I am spending June and July in London. After that I am heading back down to Florida for October and half of November. I'll go home for the holidays and then I am taking my youngest daughter and her family, my other two grandchildren, a sister and her family and me on a Disney cruise to the Caribbean after Christmas and through the New Year. We are all excited for the trip. After that it is back to Florida for the rest of winter. I don't have anything planned beyond that....maybe that African trip will come up then. I'm sure my wife wouldn't want to do the rustic trip either (to her roughing it was a Holiday Inn) but with her gone I can do it. I might see about spending June/July 2016 somewhere in Europe....Rome?

    OK, have a great trip, which I am sure you will.
  • edited May 2015
    ndvb- Please send the contact info to [deleted]. Thanks
  • Hi,AlanS. Kathy and I would love to split the car ride with you to the national park. We get in later on Friday the 12th, so leave the time to meet at the desk. Kathys last name is Hall. That's easy enough to remember. Thanks for making arrangements.
    Joanie
  • edited May 2015
    50joanie wrote:
    Hi,AlanS. Kathy and I would love to split the car ride with you to the national park. We get in later on Friday the 12th, so leave the time to meet at the desk. Kathy's last name is Hall. That's easy enough to remember. Thanks for making arrangements.
    Joanie

    Joanie,

    Great! I'll finalize the reservation and if necessary pay for the car/drive when we check in (approx 1400?) (car/drive is $200 whether 2 or 4). We can settle up later. Note: payment for car & driver (and tip) is paid in USD. Park fee is paid at the park and can be made with cash or VISA if the Park's machine is working- we plan to take cash just in case it isn't. We will be ordering box lunches (I have no idea what it contains or if there are options) and can do the same for you if you want, but there is probably time to do that when you arrive.

    Unless something changes or the hotel makes a strong recommendation otherwise, I will request we depart the Duluti at 0900 on the 13th and leave the park at approx 1600 unless we all run out of steam earlier. Others have recommended and I agree that the tour should be broken up - 2 hour drive- 2 hour walk- 2 hour drive.

    I will leave a note for you and Kathy (my wife's name is Kathy, also) at the desk as to our status. Depending how we feel, we may take the guided walk around Lake Duluti that afternoon after getting settled, so may be out and about until dinner time. We typically try to stay up to force our bodies to start adjusting to a new time zone, so can meet sometime after you arrive and get settled. If not, we can meet after breakfast the next morning. If you find no note or we have not checked in yet, there is a good chance we had flight problems and may not be able to say what time we will arrive- on the 12th (or OMG, the 13th!). Our flight is scheduled to fly from Dulles direct to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where we have a nearly 3-hour layover. Our flight is scheduled to arrive in Arusha (Kilimanjaro) 1255 PM on the 12th.

    We won't be activating our cell phone but you can initiate contact any time before we go (and afterwards) using the email address in my earlier post. Please note, since this is an open forum, I will be deleting my address from the post sometime tomorrow.
  • edited April 2015
    So just to recap for Joanie and Alan, this is how the day worked for us. We ordered our packed lunch the night before, choice of sandwich and then there was a whole load of other things in the box to eat, almost too much--- tip, always offer anything you do not want to eat, like say, the bar of chocolate, to the locals.
    The driver/guide picks you up from the hotel lobby at the time you have negotiated. We had to have cash to pay him.
    The drive to the start of the park takes about half an hour, it's all now very good road up to that point. Just as you get to the end of the road from the hotel to turn onto the main road, you may be lucky enough for it to be market day and you will see all the wares set out on the street and a good number of people buying what's on offer. You will pass through the town, past the clock tower that marks the halfway point between Cairo and Johannesburg and also the courts where the Rwanda war crimes were tried. What was most striking for me were the sheer numbers of people walking along the roads, which of course we are not used to seeing are we?
    Just as you enter the park you will stop at the building where you pay the fees for the park and the optional walking tour. If the machine is working, you will be able to pay this by credit card. I think this is the building where they have a life size statue of an elephant which is fun to take a photo of to see if you realize it's a fake when you check out your photos later or to fool your friends if you add it to your photo book.
    There is a lot of vegetation and very lush green grass at the time of year you are going. As this will probably the first opportunity to see the first Africa wildlife of your trip, don't sweat trying to take animal photos from a long distance unless it is something very unusual, you will get many more close up opportunities later on your vacation, just enjoy these first exciting views of real African wildlife.
    The optional walk is about halfway round the one way circuit, the driver stays behind with the vehicle and you go off with two walking guides, one who carries a gun. There may be others on your walking tour, so a strict two hours may not work, our walk was nearer three and we were joined by 3 or 4 others, the pace in only as fast as the slowest walker, plus if you see something interesting you have to allow for unscheduled extra time. Watch for buffalo dung! You walk up quite a slippy hill to get to the waterfall. We ate lunch by the side of one of the lakes.
    Once you start heading back to the hotel it might take about an hour because the traffic is much heavier returning. So bare this in mind if you need to get back for your impromptu meeting prior to your departure the next morning on the start of the tour. Our group met about 5pm and our Tour director went over some important info, you don't want to miss any meeting like this.
    Alan, you mention something about an Afternoon tour of the lake on your first day, it takes quite a longtime and don't forget it is Dark by about 6pm. The path is narrow and tree covered, and not very well defined and can be slippy from rainfall,you cannot walk it without a guide.
  • British- Thanks! Great info! I think you filled in the last few questions I had. Is it time to go yet???? : )
  • British, thanks so much for the inside scoop. Alan, if you want to adjust the time we go, just let me know...we'll be ready.

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